


A Change of Fate

by Skyberrie (LyaStark)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Queen's Shadow Series - E. K. Johnston
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, fix it but breaks something else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyaStark/pseuds/Skyberrie
Summary: Rather than going straight to the Naboo Lake Country, Padmé and Anakin go straight to Naboo to save his mother.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52
Collections: VarykiNovember 2020: Anidala Big Bang





	A Change of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for ''Queen's Shadow'' by E. K. Johnston. In that book, Padmé and Sabé try to free Shmi after Padmé's tenure as queen ends only to find that Shmi is already gone. They attempted to find her and help others living in slavery, but they make no headway. I felt that that story point hurt the continuity of the films since Padmé doesn't share this with Anakin when they meet and I didn't care for the way she knew Shmi was living in slavery for four years without doing anything to help her. So I address that in this story.

“No... No...Mom...No... NO...”

Padmé approached the sleeping padawan hesitantly, the fear and urgency in Anakin’s tone drawing her in like a tractor beam. Despite his height and lean build, the young man never looked so vulnerable. No sooner did her palm rest against his arm then he was wide awake and alert. Sitting up and regaining his bearings, he seemed to do a quick sweep of the transport and the other passengers. 

“What?” he asked.

“You seemed to be having a nightmare,” she said softly.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

Padmé waited for him to continue, but he simply rose and strode away. Maybe she should have let the subject drop, let him come to her if he wished to confide, but the anxiousness etched in Anakin’s every movement gnawed at her to keep pressing.

“You’re dreaming about your mother, aren’t you?”

“I left Tatooine so long ago that my memory of her is fading.” The anguish and shame in his face was palpable. “I don’t want to lose it.”

Anakin sighed and turned away again. “Recently, I’ve been seeing her in my dreams. Scary dreams. I worry about her.”

Padmé pressed her lips together and swallowed imperceptibly. She should have told him what she had done, the steps she had taken, before now. But since he was assigned as her bodyguard, there hadn’t been much time for them to speak alone without her security detail and Obi-Wan to hear. She trusted her staff with her life, but where this could lead, where it probably should lead would be a path they would adamantly object to. Even as she prepared to tell Anakin what she knew, she also began to work through what steps must be taken to get them back to Tatooine. She would need to contact Captain Panaka with one of their security codes. Though he served Queen Jamilia now, he remained one of her most trusted friends and contacts.

“Ani,” Padmé began. “After everything that happened ten years ago, I had thought the Jedi would send help to your mother and the slaves on Tatooine.”

“No.” The word was dull and harsh. A well-worn rage by the sound of it. “They didn’t. The Jedi go where the Senate sends them. No aid is sent to the Outer Rim. The chancellor has been working on a bill for years that might help, but even his hands are tied.”

She knew all about that bill. The one Palpatine continuously dissuaded her from actively working on. The one that was so toothless it didn’t even mention slavery outright, just the transportation of goods, but that was another battle that needed to be set aside for the moment. 

“I should have made certain someone was sent to help Shmi,” she insisted. “She gave me shelter and food and … and you. Your help made it possible to leave the planet. The least I could have done was check to see if the Jedi were helping her rather than assuming.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Padmé pushed onward. “Near the end of my second term, the senator of Naboo who served before me mentioned that the Jedi couldn’t interfere in such a large scale fight without the Senate’s approval. That’s when I realized that I had left Shmi enslaved. So, I decided to free her and as many people as I could.”

Anakin had slowly strode back to her as she spoke, blue eyes wide and hopeful. 

“I couldn’t do nearly as much as I wanted,” Padmé hurried on. “The incoming queen asked me to serve as Naboo’s senator, so I sent Sabé to find Shmi and act in my stead.”

She reached up to take both of Anakin’s hands in hers and pulled him down to sit beside her. 

“Ani, we couldn’t find her.”

The way he slumped nearly shattered Padmé’s heart. She cupped his face in her hands and held his gaze. 

“That doesn’t mean she’s dead,” she assured him. “Maybe she gained her freedom.”

“Or was sold to someone else,” Anakin said hollowly. “Someone worse than Watto. Someone who’s hurting her.”

Padmé could feel the fear and rage simmering barely restrained within him. She lowered her hands from his face, not blaming him. The idea that slavery was allowed to exist in the Republic unchecked and almost wholly unacknowledged was infuriating.

“I know I’m disobeying my mandate to protect you, senator,” Anakin said, his voice rigid. “But I have to go. I have to help her.”

Padmé didn’t hesitate. She was ready.

“You won’t be disobeying your mandate,” she assured him, slipping her hand in his. “I’m coming with you.”

Anakin squeezed her hand and her heart clenched as well. Padmé knew the right thing to do was to pull away, maintain a professional distance. Since their lives collided again, he had left no mystery about his feelings for her. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, Padmé returned the pressure.

\----

It all happened too simply and easily. No sooner did they step out of the transport into Theed’s spaceport then Anakin saw Padmé speak quietly into the encrypted comlink on her wrist.

“What a fine yacht,” she said casually.

“The finest,” a male voice responded on the other end.

Anakin didn’t need to ask what the encoded message meant. After picking up their luggage, they made their casual way to where the private vessels were parked until they reached the humbler vessels and then the junkers, R2-D2 trailing just behind. Or at least as junky as it got on Naboo. It was at such a junker that a man in plain clothes waited for them.

“Milady,” the man said softly. “Captain Panaka sends his regards.”

And with that, they were free to go to Tatooine. To have something that Anakin wanted for so long just… happen with the ease of sending a message to the right person made him lightheaded. How simple it could have been for the Jedi to send someone to free Shmi or for Anakin to take the credits he earned from those underground races he won and returned for his mother.

“Something Sabé noticed while looking for your mother was a symbol, a white sun cut into the lintel above the door of your house,” Padmé said once they landed. “I don’t remember it being there before. Does that mean anything to you?”

Anakin shook his head. They visited the house anyway. The sight of the dingy complex of hovels twisted his insides. As they made their way through the all too familiar slave quarters, Anakin marveled at how nothing had changed. He almost expected to find his mother standing outside of their house just as he left her, her arms clasped tightly around herself as she watched him go. But she wasn’t there.

As Sabé had reported, the symbol of a white sun had been carved above the door. When he asked the couple who lived there now what it meant, they claimed to know nothing. Nothing about the symbol and nothing about Shmi Skywalker.

“They were lying,” Anakin said, barely able to restrain the growing anger within him.

Padmé slipped her hand in his, tempering him somewhat. “Sabé had the same problem when she tried to gather information. They have a hard time trusting outsiders.”

Outsiders. Was that what he was now?

“Watto will know more,” Anakin insisted. And if he had hurt his mother...

Luckily for the Toydarian, he had the answers they sought. The records he kept led them to a farm outside of Mos Eisley where a man named Cliegg Lars lived. This Cliegg had freed and married Shmi. Yet, when they arrived, his mother was nowhere to be found. Only C-3PO, Cliegg on his power chair, his son Owen, and Beru Whitesun.

“We should go inside,” Cliegg said once introductions were made. “We have a lot to talk about.”

But Anakin had very little to say. He mostly listened to his stepfather’s story of how Shmi had been taken by a band of Tusken Raiders, how thirty of them had gone out to save her, and only four came back.

“We only just returned this morning,” he explained. “If it wasn’t for my leg, I would be out there still. I don’t know how much longer she’ll last if we don’t reach her soon. Shmi is strong but….” He shook his head. “She’s been gone almost two weeks. She might be dead already.”

Anakin rose from his seat.

“Where are you going?” Owen asked.

“To find my mother,” he said simply.

“Your mother’s dead, son,” Cliegg said. “Accept it.”

Anakin shook his head stiffly and left the homestead. 

Owen was right behind him. “Here, you can borrow my speeder bike.”

Just as he was about to ride away, Padmé was there too. He didn’t know if she intended to come with him, there was only one speeder bike and he would need the extra room for Shmi when he found her.

“You’re gonna have to stay here,” Anakin said. “These are good people, Padmé. You’ll be safe.”

She didn’t argue. Throwing her arms around him, Padmé held him tight. Anakin returned the embrace and breathed in the fresh scent of her, his face buried in the senator’s shoulder. What he wouldn’t trade to be able to hold her like that in calmer times, with no cares and no worries, only the feel of her. But Mom was out there, suffering, in pain. Slowly, they drew apart.

“I won’t be long,” he promised.

The memory of Padmé in his arms did much to soothe the fear twisting inside of Anakin as he sped through the Tatooine landscape.

Though he could sense his mother, the feeling was not the best locating tool. Anakin had to pay a band of Jawas for information on what they knew about the Tusken Raiders who had passed through recently to pick up their trail. He discovered their camp late into the night. In an unadorned hut, he could sense her. After making his own entrance through the back, he found Mom bound and bloody, her back a crimson ruin. Quickly, he removed the bindings and she fell back into his arms. 

The rage at what had been done to her warred with joy at seeing her again and hearing her voice.

“Ani?” Shmi asked. “Is that you?”

“I’m here, Mom,” Anakin assured her. “You’re safe.”

“Ani?” she cupped his cheek. “Oh, you look so handsome. My son. My grown-up son. I’m so proud of you, Ani.”

“I missed you,” he whispered.

“And I you,” she said. “I knew….” Her battered face twisted in pain. “I knew…”

“Mom, it’s alright,” Anakin insisted. “I’m getting you out of here.”

\----

Watching Anakin speed away, Padmé’s heart pounded so hard in her chest, it almost seemed on the verge of breaking free and chasing after him. She ached to hold Anakin longer, to help in the search for Shmi. Instead, she returned to the homestead, maintaining her composure. 

Cliegg and Owen didn’t offer her their hospitality. They took it for granted that she would, of course, be staying there until Anakin returned and Beru went to work trying to comfort her with food and blue milk. 

“You said your last name was Whitesun?” Padmé asked Beru over dinner. “We saw the symbol of a white sun carved into the lintel above the door of Shmi’s old home.”

The blond woman seemed to study her for a moment before answering. “Whitesun is a slave name, like Skywalker. I’m only the second generation of my mother’s family born into freedom. My grandmother earned her freedom and went on to help others do the same. My mother and I have continued her legacy.”

“You helped Shmi gain her freedom?” Padmé asked.

Beru nodded, sipping her milk.

“I met Shmi in Mos Espa when I went to Watto’s shop for a spare part,” Cliegg explained. “I was so taken with her, I had to make my visits to the shop a regular thing.”

A sad smile touched his ruddy face.

“When I offered to buy off her slave debt, Watto refused. Shmi was too valuable. She ran his store, kept his accounts, and even did some mechanic work when he needed it. He wasn’t about to sell her for anything.”

“When Cliegg told me about her, I got the freedom movement involved,” Beru said. “Watto was known for his gambling. We used that to leave him no choice but to sell Shmi for some quick credits.”

“So you commemorated her freedom by a white sun above her door,” the senator concluded.

Padmé absorbed the information in awe. Her mind raced through all the ways she might be able to help in these efforts now that she was in contact with a leader of the movement. But she would need to speak with Queen Jamilia and the governor of Karlinus to see how her plans might be implemented. 

Though she kept the thoughts to herself, making plans to join the freedom movement helped distract Padmé from the ever-present fear for Anakin and Shmi. It would be the height of cruelty for the kind older woman to die just as she gained her freedom, a new family, and a chance at reuniting with her son.

Anakin and Shmi returned just as the first of the twin suns took a position directly overhead. The young padawan cradled the smaller form of his mother against his chest and hurried her inside. Without a word, Padmé raced for the ship and returned with every bacta patch she could find. Even with the added supplies from the Lars farm, it wasn’t enough. A close examination showed that her ribs may have been broken and the pads would run dry before the horror that was her back could heal. 

“We can bring you to Naboo, or Karlinus if we want to be discreet,” she said, remembering that she was meant to be in hiding. “Either planet will give you the best care possible.”

What followed was, what Padmé considered, a far more complicated discussion on what was to be done. The Lars family seemed reluctant to leave the farm and Shmi had no wish to let them or Anakin out of her sight. They wondered if they ought to give the bacta pads time to do their work or see what supplies they might find. Padmé tried to empathize, reminding herself that Tatooine was all they knew and the wider galaxy was a mystery to them so far. So she gave the family space to discuss the issue and returned to the ship to send a few encrypted transmissions to Naboo.

“You found her,” Sabé said softly, the relief showing even through the grainy blue holo. 

“Anakin found her,” Padmé said. “All these years, she had been safe with her new family. You were right about the freedom movement. They helped her and they’re trying to help so many others.”

“And you want to help them,” Sabé said. It wasn’t a question. 

She nodded. “I do. I want to do it for the sake of all these people in bondage, but…” She drew in a breath and released it slowly. This was something she could only admit to Sabé. “I want to do it for me, too. I still don’t think I’ve truly accepted Versé and Cordé’s deaths. I keep thinking I’ll see them again once I return to Coruscant just waiting for me with Dormé and Typho. But they’re gone. They died for me and I want to make sure their deaths meant something. That saving me was worth it. If I can help these people, maybe…”

Rarely did Padmé run out of words, but with Sabé she knew her meaning was fully conveyed and understood.

“You’re doing this even after the chancellor warned you to stay away from the slavery problem?” Sabé asked.

“I know Palpatine means well, but his efforts aren’t making any progress,” Padmé said. “They haven’t for the past six years. It’s time to take a different approach. I plan to bring it up with Beru once Shmi is out of danger.”

All of the right people were contacted and making ready for their arrival long before the family agreed that leaving for the Chommell sector was the only option. Wary and uncertain, they boarded the ship and secured themselves as Padmé brought them into the air, broke atmosphere, and made the jump to hyperspace.

While Anakin and Cliegg remained in the back with Shmi and a fretting C-3P0, Beru and Owen watched the whole process with wide eyes. She smiled reassuringly before rising to make her way to the back to check on the others.

Padmé’s heart swelled seeing Anakin and Shmi together. Even with all her relief work, she was sometimes surprised all over again how rare it was for families to have the comfort and stability her own enjoyed. Quietly, she sat on Anakin’s other side and took in the sight of them growing acquainted with each other again. He turned to Padmé with a grin more light and carefree than she had ever seen. When he slid an arm around her, she didn’t protest or shrink away.

A part of her insisted it wasn’t right, that she ought to politely distance herself. This was a direction their relationship couldn’t go, buta larger part of her had no wish to acknowledge that at the moment. She simply rested her head against his shoulder.

Hours later, Yané and Sabé were waiting for them when the ship landed on Karlinus with medical aid and transportation ready. If hiding Padmé’s identity was still the priority, which it only technically was, this mode of travel couldn’t have been better plotted out with her arriving in a junker of a ship.

\-------

Just a week ago, Anakin had been a mess of nervous excitement at the thought of just seeing Padmé again. He couldn’t possibly have imagined how much more would happen. Not only did the woman he had loved since he was nine stand beside him like she was meant to be just there, but his mother was back in his life, safe, and receiving the best medical care possible. Watching Shmi floating in a bacta tank, he could hardly believe it was happening. Even Cliegg was getting aid for his leg. Doctors and med droids were fitting him for a cybernetic leg to replace the one the Raiders took. Everything seemed to be on its way to being fixed. 

Now he waited for the other blaster to fire. The other blaster being the Jedi council calling him back to his duties with them.

He hadn’t heard from Obi-Wan since they parted, so there was no telling how far along in his investigation he was in discovering who hired the assassin to kill Padmé. He could be called away at any moment with the news that the danger had passed, effectively tearing him away from her and his mother. They were selfish thoughts that burned all the more fiercely because of the shame that accompanied them. 

“Ani?” Padmé said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

Were his feelings so obvious? Of course, they were.

Anakin covered her hand with his own and nodded. 

“Let’s go for a walk,” she suggested. 

Like on Naboo, everything on Karlinus was beautiful and functional. The art style was very different, but the spirit was very similar. Outside of Shmi’s hospital room was a floor to ceiling window looking out onto an intricately designed landscape. Padmé led him out onto a small balcony where they could talk without being heard.

She said nothing. They simply stared out at the swirling designs of green, blue, and purple that formed the entry into the hospital, allowing Anakin to gather his thoughts.

“Thank you,” he said, still at a loss, but wanting to fill the silence. “Without your help, Mom would be dead right now.”

Padmé shook her head, those dark brown curls tossing gently in the breeze. “You, Beru, and Cliegg did far more to help Shmi than I did. I will always wish I had done more to repay her for helping me.”

Neither mentioned that if she had, Shmi probably wouldn’t have met Cliegg. Then again, she also wouldn’t have been taken by the Tusken Raiders either. There was no point in wondering about what might have been.

“I think I prefer Naboo to Karlinus,” he said. It was the first thing that came into his head and it seemed to lead nowhere. But all he could do was press on. “The colors are so … vibrant.”

Padmé smiled uncertainly at that. “Naboo is very colorful too.”

“It’s different though,” Anakin insisted. “The colors on Naboo are softer and more … refined.” Almost of its own volition, his hand reached up to feel the blue fabric of her shirt. “And soft.” 

Running his knuckles down her arm, his eyes met hers. Hesitantly, barely daring to move, Anakin leaned toward her. Padmé didn’t stop him. As he closed what little distance remained between them, Padmé’s mouth rose to meet his. Anakin had never kissed anyone before, but he had often dreamed of this very moment with Padmé. The feel of her against him was more intense than he was prepared for. As their mouths moved together, Anakin knew that everything he sensed in the Force, all the certainty he felt since he was a child on a dusty planet seeing an angel stroll into the junk shop, was true. Their lives were meant to intertwine into one.

Just as Anakin pressed a hand against the small of her back to hold her closer, Padmé turned away from him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head slightly and turning back to the view. “I shouldn’t have done that. We shouldn’t have done that.”

“Padmé…” he began, but she sped over him.

“You’re studying to become a Jedi and I’m a senator,” Padmé said. “We both know this can’t lead to anything but a scandal for both of us, regardless of the way we feel for each other..”

“Then you do feel something for me?” Anakin asked.

Padmé closed her eyes and drew in a breath. “This isn’t simply about feelings. Both of our futures are at stake. The queen couldn’t allow me to continue serving as a senator with my credibility destroyed over an affair with a padawan. And you could be thrown out of the Jedi Order, all of those years wasted.”

The obvious answer to the problem was on the tip of his tongue. He almost suggested it. All they needed to do was keep their love a secret. No one needed to know. But then the realization dawned upon him that he wouldn’t only be lying to Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi. He would be lying to his mother. With her only just returned to his life, he would return to their relationship with secrets. No, it was worse than that, if he wanted to see Shmi and grow to know the Lars family, any time he spent with them must be in secret as well. 

“I’m right, Anakin,” Padmé said, taking his silence as defeat. “Neither of us should have let this go as far as it did.”

With a squeeze of his arm, she retreated inside, leaving him to wrestle with the conflicting desires clashing inside of him.

\-----

Yané was the one to broach the subject. Thankfully, she waited until both Shmi and Cliegg were well enough to leave and they had all relocated to Varykino, a villa in Naboo’s Lake Country. 

They enjoyed a quiet breakfast together, finally able to properly catch up with each other since reuniting. This also allowed the Skywalkers and Lars’ to share time alone. Once they covered the details of Sabé’s latest assignment and how Yané’s ever-growing brood was doing, they took aim at Padmé’s love life.

“Are you going to tell us?” Yané asked.

Padmé kept her face blank and sipped her tea. 

“You really don’t plan to tell us what’s going on between you and Anakin?” Sabé asked.

A level of distance had grown between Padmé and her original five handmaidens in the years after her reign as queen ended. Sabé still worked on projects for her and she never fell out of communication with the other four. Yet the sense of oneness with them had faded away. Still, it felt unnatural not to share what she was feeling with them now. 

“Not to pressure you to share anything with us,” Yané said. “But just for full disclosure, we saw you two kissing at the hospital. If you would rather we didn’t know anything more than what we couldn’t help seeing from the hallway, we won’t pressure you.”

The silence that followed was powerful.

“Anakin and I have feelings for each other,” Padmé said, at last.

Though Sabé’s face remained handmaiden straight, Padmé could see the sardonic look beneath the surface. 

“You already know he’s training to be a Jedi,” she continued. “That makes anything more between us impossible.”

Sabé and Yané continued to look at her expectantly. 

“That’s all,” Padmé said, pouring herself more tea.

“That can’t be all,” Sabé insisted. “Even before we saw you kiss, I sensed something between you.”

“A casual intimacy,” Yané confirmed. “If Rabé were here, she would have known the second you walked off the ship.” 

“But those of us less proficient in reading body language only realized on the way to the med center.”

Yané shook her head. “Something about him makes you less subtle. Everything you’re feeling is there to be seen at a glance. You must be in love.”

Padmé couldn’t help laughing. In love. Anakin had only just returned to her life after a ten-year absence. It wasn’t possible to fall in love so quickly. Even so, she couldn’t refute them. The thought of Anakin walking back out of her life, as easily as he had returned, made her heart lurch.

“None of that matters,” she said. “Acting on these feelings would destroy everything both of us had worked for.”

“Does Anakin know that?” Yané asked. “Because he still looks at you like you’re the center of his galaxy.”

The image of Anakin’s handsome face twisted with conflict that appeared in her mind’s eye like a holo. 

“Yes,” Padmé said firmly. “He understands. Now, why don’t you tell me about your newest little girl, Yané? She came from the Western Provinces, right?”

The rest of their morning continued without any mention of forbidden feelings, though they all knew the topic wasn’t far from any of their minds.

\-----

“You have changed so much, Ani,” Shmi said that afternoon.

This was the first time they had truly been alone since arriving at the Lars farm. Cliegg, Owen, and Beru were too reluctant to leave Shmi’s side even for a moment. And Anakin didn’t blame them as he felt the same. It was only here in this lakeside villa that they felt relaxed enough to let each other out of their sights for more than a few moments. Cliegg was napping, savoring a bed more comfortable than he had ever dreamed of while Owen and Beru explored the grassy waterline, lost in the wonder of all this water. That left Anakin and Shmi time alone on the balcony to enjoy the view and chat.

“I grew up,” Anakin said.

“The boy I remembered was so light of spirit he practically bounded on air with only the transmitter chip to keep him bound to the planet,” she said, the lines around her eyes crinkling. “So confident and open. You said whatever came into your heart. Now… You seem so weighed down and closed off.”

“I…” Anakin swallowed. “I grew up, Mom.”

Shmi stared at him, concern etched in every crease of her face.

Under that gaze, shifted in his seat, struggling to find the words to say. To explain that, despite his power and ability, Anakin fell short of the Jedi ideal. That he struggled to find the peace, serenity, and detachment that even those with a fraction of his strength could master with ease. That he fell short of what he should be as a Jedi.

He was saved from explaining when his com chimed. It was Obi-Wan.

“Anakin?” the familiar voice of his master sounded as a blue holo appeared in the padawan’s hand. “Anakin? Do you copy? This is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

“Yes, m-” Anakin glanced at his mother. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to say that word in front of her. “Yes, Obi-Wan. I’m here.”

“Anakin, my long-range transmitter has been knocked out,” Obi-Wan continued. “I need you to transmit a message to Coruscant.”

The padawan clicked a few buttons to record the message so he could send it toward through a better communication device.

“I have tracked the bounty hunter Jango Fett to the droid foundries in Geonosis,” Obi-Wan said. “The Trade Federation is to take delivery of a droid army here and it is clear Viceroy Gunray is behind the assassination attempts on Senator Amidala. The Commerce Guilds and the Corporate Alliance have both pledged their armies to Count Dooku and are forming what threatens to be an unstoppable force that could topple the Republic. I will send further communication through my padawan when I have learned more.”

At his nod, Anakin stopped recording. 

“Topple the Republic,” the padawan repeated. 

Obi-Wan nodded. “With the sheer number of battle droids and promises of armies, it is clear the Separatists do not plan for a peaceful resolution to their grievances. Do you have anything to report?”

Anakin’s mind ran through all that had happened with the rescue and relocation of his mother. 

“I have nothing to report,” he said. “The senator is safe. We are in a secluded area of Naboo.”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Send the transmission as soon as you can.”

The blue holo of his master faded to nothing.

Anakin looked over at Shmi to see her horrified expression. Drawing in a breath, Anakin rose and excused himself to send the transmission.

\-----

What began as a dangerous mission had transitioned into an idyll for Padmé. At least it was when she could forget to feel guilty about her growing feelings for Anakin. Though it was likely a mistake, they couldn’t seem to stray more than an arm’s length away from each other for long.

After breakfast on their third day, her old and new friends donned swimming suits kept in the villa and played in the shallows of the water like carefree children, Shmi and Cliegg watching from the shore. They only stopped when Teckla, one of the permanent employees at the villa, announced that lunch would be served on the terrace. 

Though the holiday mood remained, Shmi, Cliegg, Owen, and Beru began to discuss options for the future. Thanks to Yané’s connections, they were all offered refugee benefits in the Chommell sector, but whether they wanted to take advantage of them was another issue. On one hand, the opportunities on Karlinus and Naboo were a dream come true. On the other, the Lars farm had been in his family for generations making it too painful to let go of. Meanwhile, Beru seemed determined to return to continue her efforts with the freedom movement.

“We can help you with that,” Yané said.

Padmé straightened. “We tried helping some years ago, but we weren’t able to communicate with the liberation movement before.” 

“And the senate transportation bill is less than useless,” Sabé added grimly. 

“If we combine our resources to yours,” Padmé continued to Beru, “we could work toward freeing countless more beings.”

Beru’s blue eyes widened. “That…” She took a deep breath and shook her head, clearly overwhelmed. “That would make all the difference in the galaxy.”

“I wanted to make contact with your group years ago,” Sabé said. “But when my partner and I went looking for Shmi, we got lumped in with her former owner’s cronies and no one would trust them. Not that I blame them.”

“But everything can be different now,” Yané pressed on excitedly. “We can work with you to help the liberated beings find their footing and get used to living outside of the slave system. I worked with the twenty-five people Sabé managed to save and I’m still in contact with a few of them who decided to stay in the Chommell sector. They might want to work with us too.”

The conversation really began to speed up then, every one brimming with ideas. 

Padmé noticed Anakin open his mouth likely to share an idea, only to shut it again and slink back in his seat. She wasn’t certain whether to press him or not. But the senator wasn’t the only one to notice.

“Were you about to say something, Anakin?” Beru asked. “You and Shmi have more inside knowledge on slavery than any of us. With you joining us too…”

Anakin shifted in his seat, looking away from her. 

“Something wrong, son?” Cliegg asked. 

At the word “son”, Anakin looked like he just took a blaster bolt to the chest.

Padmé rested a soothing hand on his arm. 

“Anakin is training to be a Jedi,” she explained. “His duty is to the Republic as a whole. Once this assignment is over, he and his master will be given a new assignment by the Jedi council.”

“Master?” Shmi and Cliegg cried together.

“Teacher,” Anakin explained stiffly. “Obi-Wan is training me in the ways of the Force.”

“I’m sorry,” Beru said quickly, her wide eyes darting between them. “I assumed you two were….”

She left the last word unsaid, but they all heard it just the same.

Together.

Padmé withdrew her hand from him and noticed Anakin’s jaw clench. She didn’t have to look at Sabé and Yané to get the “told you so” look. 

In the silence that followed, Anakin rose. “Excuse me,” he said quietly and strode away. 

Before taking a moment to consider, Padmé followed him. His long legs carried him further and faster than her own, so it took some time before she caught up the padawan. She found him looking out at the water leaning against the stone railing. Padmé watched him for a time before fully regaining her senses and turning to go back. Going to him now could only send the wrong message.

“Don’t go,” Anakin said, keeping his back to her.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“No.”

The bluntness of the word made her feel foolish for asking. Of course, he wasn’t alright. 

“Obi-Wan believes Gunray is behind your assassination attempts,” he said. “The Trade Federation has joined Dooku and the Separatists.”

Padmé didn’t even feign surprise. She had been certain from the beginning that Dooku and the Trade Federation were behind this. 

“I keep lying to myself,” Anakin continued, finally turning to face her, eyes red with tears. “I keep thinking that I have a place in your life, in Mom's life, but this mission is almost over. As soon as Master Windu and Master Yoda deal with Dooku, you’ll be safe and I will be sent to some other world to deal with some other trouble. Another decade could pass before I see you and Mom again. I might never see either of you again at all.”

There were no words of comfort she could say to that. It was all true. He would leave her life just as easily as he entered it. As painful as it would be for her, she knew Shmi’s heart would shatter as well.

An irrational urge to beg him to stay nearly overtook Padmé, but she clamped it down. Asking that of him wouldn't be fair. Only a few bright souls in the galaxy were called to be a Jedi. To ask him to give that up just because of what she felt for him was selfish.

“Padmé, I be-”

Anakin didn’t finish his sentence. His gaze shifted beyond her. Padmé turned her head to see what he was looking at, but there was nothing but the side of the villa. When she turned back to Anakin, his hand clutched his heaving chest. 

“Oh my gods, Anakin!” Padmé rushed forward to hold him as he crumpled to his knees. “Are you alright?”

“Obi-Wan,” he whispered, his blue eyes finally met hers. “He’s… He’s dead.”

\------

More than a day passed before Anakin could gain confirmation for what he already knew. Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead. The closest thing Anakin ever had to a father was dead. 

All this time he had spent resenting Obi-Wan for holding him back or being overly critical, all the time he had dreaded his master completing the mission and forcing Anakin back to the Jedi temple, and now he would never see his master again. The guilt of it all threatened to crush his chest in.

Shmi and Padmé were with him when Yoda finally returned his call. Apparently, Obi-Wan had been captured shortly after his last transmission with Anakin. After surviving the arena fight Dooku forced him to endure, the count killed him in single combat. But their fight had lasted long enough for Yoda to arrive and finish his former student himself. The Separatists were still out there, but the movement wasn’t likely to regain momentum with many of their leaders dead or captured.

“Mourn him not, young Skywalker,” Yoda said, his blue holo leaning on a cane. “Miss him not. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice that he has transformed into the Force.”

Shmi made a harsh noise from the back of her throat. Anakin silently grasped her hand. 

“Complete your mission is,” Yoda continued. “Return to Coruscant, you must, for reassignment to a new master.”

Anakin clenched his teeth but said nothing until the transmission ended. During the last day, he had grieved for his fallen master and considered what this meant for his future. The conclusion he arrived at was not one he would share with Yoda first.

“Free or enslaved, we are allowed our grief,” Shmi said, more furious than Anakin had ever seen her.

“I’m not going back to the Jedi Order,” Anakin said. “I am staying with my family. With you.”

Just with saying the words, a weight had lifted from him that he had grown so used to carrying. The two most important women in his life had very different responses to the confession.

“Oh, Ani, I’m so glad,” Shmi said. “I don’t like what they were teaching you.”

“But Ani,” Padmé cried, “you can’t simply give up your training. All those years, all of that work.”

Anakin shook his head. “When I was a little boy, I dreamed of becoming a Jedi and returning to Tatooine to free the slaves. Now I know that if I want to help free the slaves in the Outer Rim, I can’t do it as a Jedi.”

He studied Padmé’s worried face, silently praying to any gods that might listen that this could be the moment their relationship took the turn he dreamed it would so long ago.

Shmi rose and Anakin looked up at her. Her dark eyes darted back and forth between him and Padmé. 

“I will let the two of you talk this through,” she said before leaving them on the terrace, a soft smile on her face.

“Ani, you have to think this through,” Padmé said. “A place in the Jedi Order is not something to give up lightly.”

“I don’t give this up lightly,” Anakin insisted, moving his chair closer to hers and taking both of her hands in his. “I’ve been thinking of it for years. I almost left before. Years ago. I’ve thought of leaving again every day since you came back into my life.”

“Don’t decide this based on how we feel about each other,” Padmé insisted, though she squeezed his hands in return.

“The only reason I stayed with the Jedi this long was because of how I felt about Obi-Wan,” he said. “I love him like a father. I hated the thought of disappointing him. Without him, nothing is binding me to the Order and there’s everything in the galaxy binding me here with you.”

He continued studying her, trying to gauge her reaction. He got nothing from the practiced calm of her features, but he could sense the building excitement radiating off of her in the Force.

Padmé shook her head. “This shouldn’t make me so happy. I should be convincing you to serve the Republic.”

Anakin prepared a rebuttal, but he had no chance to speak. 

Closing the short distance between them, Padmé claimed his mouth with hers. All thought of talking fled from his mind as he drew her tightly against him.

When Padmé and Anakin wed at sunset on the balcony of the lakeside villa on Varykino, they exchanged vows using their own names and surrounded by their family and friends.


End file.
